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So pipsqueak has been keeping me very busy, and as ever the blog slips down my agenda. It’s situated below items such as ‘veg out on sofa once baby is asleep’, ‘remember to cook and eat food’, and my favourite ‘try and do housework’.

I often think about it though, and think I really must keep it up. And promptly move on to the next thing, mainly looking after Adam or sitting, eyes glazed, scrolling through Facebook until my thumb hurts. So here’s the latest.

I cleverly thought I’d fill some space by asking for guest blogs. The problem? I asked Dads. I asked Jamie who is even more frazzled than me in the evenings, as he has been at work all day being busy and important. And I asked my friend M, who is a dad to twins. ‘Nuff said. So there may be a couple of dad blogs to look out for.

Adam is almost nine months old now. He can sit up, roll over, pick stuff up and feed himself, and he can crawl around like a wee creepy crawly. I’m thrilled to see him growing and learning but it astonishes me that just nine months ago he was a tiny, sleepy bundle of hiccups and new baby smell, and he has changed so much. And THEN my mind gets blown when I think about how much he grew and developed in the first nine months when he was, er, in utero, so to speak. From the teeny wee space prawn we saw on our first scan to the full term baby, those 40 weeks were intense!

We are determined to make the most of this time while he is growing so fast, and I don’t want to wish his babyhood away. Except for one thing that is. I’m counting the days hours and minutes until he sleeps consistently through the night. I’m devastated to find that my sweet little baby is in a minority (supposedly) of babies who don’t sleep through by nine months. And I can look forward to further sleep regression between 9-12 months too. I honestly don’t think Adam’s sleep could regress any more!

My my friends with babies who do sleep all night are sympathetic, and I get sick of hearing myself repeat the same tired phrases like “this too shall pass” and trying to stay optimistic. So pass already! I’ve done my time, seriously. I’ll do whatever you like and I mean whatever.

On the seemingly random occasions when Adam does sleep through I no longer get excited, metaphorically hand-rubbing and thinking “this is it!”. No, I just try and be thankful for the extra sleep and attempt to replicate the following day minute for minute in case routine and diet have anything to do with it. They don’t.

Now that Beelzebub can crawl and sit up etc he does that in his cot and it can be quite comical to find him staring through the bars like a convict. But it’s hard to maintain a sense of humour when you’ve not slept more than four consecutive hours for nine months.

Believe me I have scoured books and the web, I’ve interrogated the parents of good sleepers, I’ve honed my routine and even changed it completely, and I’ve never quite cracked the code. But I haven’t done ‘controlled crying’ because wee Adam cries in the night for me, and at 4am I’m not doing anything more important than dealing with his needs. He’s only a baby for a short while, and I can sleep when he’s ready to let me.